Friday, June 11, 2010

The Search For A Teacher Who Initiated Onyancha Into A Blood Sucking Cult Begins

Kenya's first mass murderer Philip Onyancha has revealed the roots of his macabre thirst for human blood after he led police officers to a school where he claims one of the teachers recruited him into a blood sucking cult. However the killer's mentor was not in the school's vicinity when the police arrived and a manhunt has been launched to capture the teacher.

The Kiswahili teacher at Gatamaiyu Secondary School in Ruiru did not show up to school on Thursday, according to the headmaster J.Gichohi.

“She was here yesterday [Wednesday] but I have not seen her today; we are equally worried because she did not seek permission to be absent,” Mr Gichohi said.

“She has not called to say where she is and why she has not come to teach,” he added.

Gichohi told journalists that police had visited the school early on Thursday inquiring about her whereabouts and contacts.

“They [police] were here in the morning and I have given them everything they wanted. We don’t know anything about the things we are learning from the media, we don’t know anything at all,” he added as he pleaded with journalists to leave the school compound because of the curiosity they were raising among the students.

He did not allow journalists to interview students or workers at the school.

Gichohi said he knew little about the teacher as she had only been posted there one and a half months ago from Matopeni Secondary School in Ruiru.

“She was moved here recently; she is new and she had no other responsibility here apart from teaching Kiswahili,” the head teacher said.

A manhunt for the teacher was launched on Wednesday after Onyancha - who has confessed to killing 19 people - alleged that she recruited him into the cult while he was a student at the Kenyatta High School, in Othaya Nyeri.

“My class teacher recruited me into a cult when I was in school but it took long to take effect; the spirits started working in me when I started working in Nairobi,” Mr Onyancha who hails from Etange village of South Mugirango said.

The Head of the Special Crimes Prevention Unit (SCPU) Richard Katola said that they were still visiting scenes in Naivasha and Nakuru where the suspect had pledged to reveal more.

Since Sunday, Onyancha has been taking the police to various scenes where bodies and other personal effects of people he confessed to have killed were recovered.